"The Conversion of the Hagia Sophia was the Beginning..." Erdogan, but the Beginning of What?

 

Erdogan’s son: Turning Hagia Sophia into a mosque

was ‘the first step towards freedom for

 Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa’

JAN 5, 2024 4:30 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER

This is the son of the president of a NATO member and ostensible U.S. ally, and he says: “We know that those who are creating artificial agendas and trying to divide us, who are trying to dilute the Palestinian cause, are the agents of influence of America and Israel.”

Turkey should not be in NATO or be considered a U.S. ally, which it is not. But in Washington, such talk is dismissed as “Islamophobic.”

Bilal Erdoğan, Son Of Turkish President: Converting 

The Hagia Sophia Back Into A Mosque Was The First Step

 Towards Freedom For Jerusalem And Al-Aqsa Mosque

MEMRI, January 1, 2024:

Bilal Erdoğan, son of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, called in a January 1, 2024 address that was posted on Haber House on YouTube for a boycott of Israel. He said that the boycott of Israel would not end with a ceasefire.

Erdoğan stated that his father “breaking the fetters” of Hagia Sophia by converting it back into a mosque was the first step towards freedom for Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Hagia Sophia was a built as a church, converted into a mosque and then into a museum. In July 2020, it was converted back into an operational mosque.

The History of the Hagia Sophia is long and fascinating. It was the largest building in the world and the centre of Christianity for more than 1000 years before Mehmed II finally conquered Constantinople on May 29th, 1453. On that morning, people saw lights rising from the Hagia Sophia. Was it the Holy Spirt abandoning the falling church? Were they angels abandoning their posts? 

Is he called the “forerunner of antichrist” because he was the first Muslim to stand in the Hagia Sophia after a thousand years of it being the center of Christianity in the world? (Search this blog for 'Hagia Sophia' for several stories.)

Matt 24:14-16

"This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.

"Therefore when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains.

Has Erdogan's appearance, leading prayer in the same Hagia Sophia in 2020, and again in 2023, the actual abomination of which Jesus spoke?

Was 2023's summer appearance the warning of the attack on Israel. If it was, one would expect some sort of attack thereafter, like the one on October 7th, 2023. But something much bigger is almost certainly in the works.

One of Israel's flaws in its armour is their military. Incredibly powerful, yet completely unprepared for the Oct. 7th massacre. Israel is relying on its military power and its ally America. They do not seem to be relying on God. Consequently, God must remove their faith in horses and chariots, before rescuing the remnant that is left.

Islam - Current Day > Children shout, “Allahu Akbar” in Hagia Sophia

Bilal Erdoğan is a businessman, he is a graduate of Indiania [sic] University Bloomington and Harvard University.

Bilal Erdoğan: “On October 7, the Nazism of Israel began one of the bloodiest massacres in history.

[…]

“We cannot be indifferent, because Jerusalem is our first direction of prayer, and because the Al-Aqsa Mosque is our sacred house of worship. We cannot be indifferent, because from [Caliph] Umar to Saladin, to [Sulan] Selim I, our ancestors who came before us watered this soil with the blood of the martyrs, and enabled the members of the tree [Abrahamic] religions to live in tranquility in these lands.

[…]

“We know that those who are causing the genocide in Palestine are the same as the killers of our martyrs. We know that those who are creating artificial agendas and trying to divide us, who are trying to dilute the Palestinian cause, are the agents of influence of America and Israel. We know that breaking the fetters of Hagia Sophia under the leadership of our president was the first step towards freedom for Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa.

We also know what peoples are chronic liars and what people are not!  Jerusalem is already free, for Al Aqsa, however, it is the beginning of the end. Al Aqsa will fall when the Lord shakes the Earth.

“We promise that we will continue the boycott. Istanbul, do we promise to continue the boycott? This will not end with a ceasefire. For as long as the Palestinian cause continues, we are going to make room for the boycott in our lives.”

Erdogan: Christianity’s Iconic Hagia Sophia Might Be Active Mosque Again

Is Erdogan the Abomination of Desolation?

Once the very centre of Christianity, the first church on this site was built by Constantine the Great. But in 404, John Chrysostom was exiled by another Emporer's wife. Riots ensued and the church was burned to the ground. 

Another church was erected in 415 by Theodosius II, but a revolt in 532 resulted in it being burned down. Within weeks, Justinian I began planning the Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom) which stood as the largest building in the world for nearly a thousand years. 

The Ottomans turned it into a mosque in the 15th century and Attaturk secularized it in 1935 turning it into a museum. President Erdogan is a devout Muslim and, so, it was just a matter of time before it was profaned again.

FILE PHOTO © AFP / Yasin AKGUL

Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia, originally a Byzantine Christian church, might be turned into a mosque again – a potential back-down from the legacy of Turkey’s secular government that turned the site into a museum in 1935.

“This is not unlikely,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during a live interview with Turkish television on Monday, adding, “We might even change its name to Ayasofya Mosque.”

The Hagia Sophia became a museum under Turkey’s secularist government back in 1935, but “we may as well take a step and change that,” he said.

Erdogan hinted that the change in status would benefit tourists. “Tourists come and go at the Blue Mosque. Do they pay anything?” he asked, referring to another popular site in Istanbul. “Well, we will do the same with the Hagia Sofia.”

The Hagia Sophia was first built as a church by the Byzantine Empire in the 6th century and served as the main Orthodox Christian church. Following the conquest of Constantinople, now Istanbul,  by the Ottomans in 1453, it was immediately converted into a mosque.

It was the world’s largest cathedral surpassed only in the 16th century by  the Catholic Seville Cathedral was erected in Spain and later by St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican. 

The idea of turning the Hagia Sophia into an active mosque has been around for several years. Some high-ranking politicians and Muslim clerics suggested that the place be opened to worshippers, triggering backlash in Greece, Turkey’s historic rival.

That aside, in 2016, the traditional Muslim call to prayer, the adhan, was chanted from a prayer room, not from inside the historic landmark.

In 2015, thousands of worshippers performed a morning prayer in front of the Hagia Sophia on the 562nd anniversary of the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople.

Matt 24:14-16

"This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.

"Therefore when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains.

Is it possible this refers to Erdogan standing in the Hagia Sophia? It's a remote possibility, but, it could be the signal that Turkey will invade Israel. Perhaps he will announce the invasion from the pulpit just as the invasion is happening. 

War on Christianity - 6th Century Byzantine Cathedral to Become a Mosque

Matthew 24:15. "Therefore when you see the ABOMINATION

OF DESOLATION which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet,

standing in the holy place (let the reader understand)

..

Turkish President Erdogan Signs Decree Turning Istanbul's

Hagia Sofia into a Mosque After Court Ruling

© Reuters / Murad Sezer

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has signed a decree opening the world-famous Hagia Sophia as a mosque, after a court ruled that its conversion to a museum in the 1930s was unlawful.

The court ruled on Friday that the 1934 decree converting the ancient Byzantine cathedral into a museum was not lawful. Immediately after the ruling, Erdogan shared a copy of a decree on Twitter, mandating that the site be turned over to the country's religious directorate and reopened for worship.

In a televised address later in the evening, the Turkish leader said that the first prayers will be held in the Hagia Sophia on July 24.

Dating back to the 6th century, the Hagia Sophia is one of the most visited cultural sites in Turkey, as well as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

UNESCO has expressed concern over Erdogan’s vision for the historic structure, noting in a statement on Friday that the building has a “strong symbolic and universal value.” It called on Turkey to "engage in dialogue" before taking any steps that might impact its universal value.

Even before his decree was issued, the Turkish president’s plan was condemned by leaders of the Russian and Greek Orthodox churches, who warned that it would be seen as an affront to Christians and create a fracture between East and West. Washington has also urged Turkey to maintain the Hagia Sophia as a museum.

Moscow has also highlighted the cultural significance of the building while acknowledging that the matter was an "internal affair" for Turkey.

Erdogan himself said that opening the Hagia Sophia for worship will not prevent local or foreign tourists from visiting the iconic site, which he said is a part of “humanity’s common cultural heritage.” 

"Like all of our other mosques, the doors of Hagia Sophia will be open to all, locals or foreigners, Muslims and non-Muslims,” he added.

I think this will not end well for the ambitious Erdogan.

This Day in History > The Last Day of the World - Constantinople overrun by evil - The Great Tribulation

 

May 29: The Last Day of the World

Robert Spencer  | 2:21 PM on May 29, 2025

    

Burhan Ozbilici

“On May 29, 1453,” the state-run Turkish broadcaster TRT World reported happily on Thursday, the 572nd anniversary of the fateful day, “a 21-year-old Sultan Mehmed II led the Ottoman army to a decisive victory over the Byzantine Empire. The conquest of Istanbul remains a shining jewel in the crown of the Ottoman Empire.” 

But for the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ, Satan's proudest moment since the Garden of Eden was when he stood in the Hagia Sophia on the great and terrible day. The day began with the breach of Constantinople's walls, whereupon lights were seen emanating upward from the Hagia Sophia, the largest church in Christendom for nearly a thousand years. 

Were the angels of God evacuating the lost church before the angels of Satan invaded and polluted it with their evil and the blood of saints? 

Recep Tayyip Erdogan stood in the Hagia Sophia and  recited verses from the Quran and other Islamic texts on 3 occasions since 2018. The last occasion was on May 29, 2023, after the Hagia Sophia was declared to be an Islamic mosque. 

Was this the "Holy Place" Jesus was referring to in Matthew 24? Was this the signal of the beginning of the Great Tribulation? It was followed within a few months by the massacre of 1200 Jews by the worst evil since the Holocaust.

Ancient map of Judea

Matthew 24:15,16 - 15 “So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains."

Are we in the second year of the Great Tribulation? Will Jesus return in 2030 or thereabouts?  Will all Hell break loose in 2027 or so?

(Search this blog for 'Hagia Sophia' for a number of stories on this.)

Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s desire to restore the lost glory of that empire is well known, but those who are the children and heirs of the victims of its bloody expansion look on this anniversary with somewhat less enthusiasm than TRT World displayed. 

Some Greek Orthodox Christians to this day refer to May 29, 1453, as “the last day of the world.” In a very real sense, that is exactly what it was: the end of over two thousand years of the Roman Empire, the end of what had for centuries been the world’s foremost power and leading Christian state. The conquest of Constantinople meant the eclipse of Christianity in Asia Minor, which had been such an important center of the faith that three of Paul’s New Testament epistles — Galatians, Ephesians, and Colossians — were addressed to Christian congregations there. 

Constantinople had been the center of Christianity in the eastern part of the Roman Empire, and the second see in the Church, after only Rome. After the East/West schism of 1054, Constantinople was the heart of Orthodox Christianity. As “The History of Jihad” recounts in detail, however, on Tuesday, May 29, 1453, the armies of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II finally broke through Constantinople’s defenses after a long siege, marking the end of the great Christian Roman Empire.

The conquerors were extraordinarily brutal, raiding monasteries and convents, emptying them of their inhabitants, and plundering private houses. They entered Hagia Sophia, which for nearly a thousand years had been the grandest church in Christendom. The faithful had gathered within its hallowed walls to pray during the city’s last agony. The Muslims halted the celebration of Orthros (morning prayer), while the priests, according to legend, took the sacred vessels and disappeared into the cathedral’s eastern wall, through which they shall return to complete the divine service one day. Muslim men then killed the elderly and weak and led the rest off into slavery.

The Byzantine scholar Bessarion wrote to the Doge of Venice in July 1453, saying that Constantinople had been “sacked by the most inhuman barbarians and the most savage enemies of the Christian faith, by the fiercest of wild beasts. The public treasure has been consumed, private wealth has been destroyed, the temples have been stripped of gold, silver, jewels, the relics of the saints, and other most precious ornaments. Men have been butchered like cattle, women abducted, virgins ravished, and children snatched from the arms of their parents.” 

When the slaughter and pillage were finished, Mehmed II ordered an Islamic scholar to mount the high pulpit of the Hagia Sophia and declare that there was no God but Allah, and Muhammad was his prophet. The magnificent old church was turned into a mosque; hundreds of other churches in Constantinople and elsewhere suffered the same fate. Millions of Christians joined the ranks of the dhimmis; others were enslaved, and many were killed.

Once the Muslims had thoroughly subdued Constantinople, they set out to Islamize it. According to the Muslim chronicler Hoca Sa’deddin, tutor of the sixteenth-century Sultans Murad III and Mehmed III, “churches which were within the city were emptied of their vile idols and cleansed from the filthy and idolatrous impurities and by the defacement of their images and the erection of Islamic prayer niches and pulpits many monasteries and chapels became the envy of the gardens of Paradise.”

It has come to be known as Black Tuesday, the Last Day of the World. Ever since, many Greek Christians regard Tuesday as unlucky. The world has forgotten what happened on Black Tuesday and on so many other days like it from India to Spain, and today persists in the fantasy that Islam does not contain an imperialist impulse and that Muslims can be admitted without limit into Western countries without any attempt to determine how many would like ultimately to subjugate and Islamize their new countries, the way their forefathers did to Constantinople so long ago.

Related: Is the West Suffering From an Absence of Islam?

There are, however, some people who remember — and they want to do it again. Back in 2008, Sheik Ali Al-Faqir, former Jordanian minister of religious endowment, said this on Al-Aqsa TV: “We proclaim that we will conquer Rome, like Constantinople was conquered once…” Hamas MP and Islamic cleric Yunis Al-Astal said this, also on Al-Aqsa TV several years ago: “Very soon, Allah willing, Rome will be conquered, just like Constantinople was, as was prophesized by our Prophet Muhammad.”

The man who was the most popular Islamic TV preacher until his death several years ago, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, also remembered. In writing about “signs of the victory of Islam,” he referred to a hadith: “The Prophet Muhammad was asked: ‘What city will be conquered first, Constantinople or Romiyya?’ He answered: ‘The city of Hirqil [that is, the Roman emperor Heraclius] will be conquered first’ – that is, Constantinople… Romiyya is the city called today ‘Rome,’ the capital of Italy. The city of Hirqil [that is, Constantinople] was conquered by the young 23-year-old Ottoman Muhammad bin Morad, known in history as Muhammad the Conqueror, in 1453. The other city, Romiyya, remains, and we hope and believe [that it too will be conquered].”

Mehmed the Conqueror was motivated by exactly the same religious ideology that motivates the Islamic warriors of the contemporary era. They remember, and still celebrate, what happened in Constantinople on May 29, 1453. For free people in the West and elsewhere, May 29 should be a day for all those threatened by Islamic jihad and Sharia oppression to redouble our efforts to resist, so that more such catastrophes may never again destroy the lives of free people.

The left doesn't just manipulate today's news. It manipulates history as well, in its efforts to control the minds of the American people. Free your mind: become a VIP member today — use the code FIGHT for 60% off and start seeing the world as it is, instead of as the left wants it to be!

Greek Officials Say Reading of Koran at Sacred Turkish Landmark 'Incomprehensible'

By Doug G. Ware
ISTANBUL, Turkey, June 7 (UPI) -- Greek foreign affairs ministry officials expressed opposition and disappointment in the Turkish government this week, for its allowing the reading of prayers from the Koran at a former religious landmark that remains sacred to both Christians and Muslims.


Turkey's Hagia Sophia museum, a UNESCO world heritage site since 1985, was formerly a Christian church, a Greek Orthodox cathedral and Imperial Ottoman mosque before it became a secular museum in 1935. The landmark is recognizable around the world for its iconic dome and unique architecture. File Photo by Mehmet Cetin/Shutterstock

The first prayer was read at Istanbul's Hagia Sophia, a former Byzantine cathedral, on Monday to mark the start of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan. In addition to those in attendance, faithful throughout the heavily-Muslim nation also listened to the prayers via broadcast by the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT).

As Hagia Sophia is considered a sacred site to many for its history, Greece's Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded to the prayer readings by saying they are inappropriate for such a revered and secular landmark.

"We condemn as regressive the Turkish authorities' announcement of the scheduling of a Koran reading in Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, on the occasion of Ramadan," the ministry said in a statement Monday.

"Obsessions, verging on bigotry, with Muslim rituals in a monument of world cultural heritage are incomprehensible and reveal a lack of respect for and connection with reality," the ministry added. "Such actions are not compatible with modern, democratic and secular societies"

Turkey is no longer a secular society. Erdogan is slowly turning it into his own private caliphate!

Another Greek politician said the prayers amount to "disrespect against Orthodox Christians across the world."

Did you really expect Erdogan to respect Christians?

Turkish officials, though, decided last month to allow the Muslim prayers and broadcasts at the site, which is now a heritage museum, until the end of the month.

"Since the United States are siding with the PKK [Kurdistan Workers' Party], and Germany has clung to the [Armenian] genocide lie, friendship has shifted," Samil Tayyar, a deputy for Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party, tweeted last week. "It's our turn. [Hagia] Sophia should be open for worship."

So, Christians will be allowed to worship there as well? The government's defence of the Ottoman slaughter of Armenians reveals the distance Erdogan has taken the country from Attaturk's secular vision of Turkey. That has been abandoned completely as Erdogan attempts to rebuild the Ottoman Empire with himself as Sultan.

Tayyar was referring to a resolution passed by Germany last week that considered mass killings of Americans (sic - Armenians) by Ottoman Turks in World War I a genocide. The declaration upset the Turkish government, which responded by recalling its ambassadors from Berlin.

Hagia Sophia, recognizable around the world for its large dome, was originally a Christian church and a Greek Orthodox cathedral centuries ago before it became an imperial mosque when the Ottoman Empire took power in the 15th century. It was turned into a secular museum in 1935 and designated a UNESCO world heritage site 50 years later.

Ramadan, a holy month of of fasting that commemorates the first revelation of the Koran to the Islamic prophet Muhammad, runs through July 5.

Islam - Current Day > Children shout, “Allahu Akbar” in Hagia Sophia; Mecca's Grand Mosque Prays for the Annihilation of Jews

..

Extreme provocation in Hagia Sophia: Hundreds of children shout

“Allahu Akbar”

Orthodox Times

Aug 03, 2022 | 16:49

They are members of the TÜGVA (Turkish Youth Foundation), in which the Turkish president’s son, Bilal Erdogan, is said to hold a leading position. The foundation had organized a “Summer School Meeting of Hagia Sophia” in Hagia Sophia.

As shown in the provocative video that goes around the internet, someone tells the children the phrase “tekbir” and they all shout “Allahu Akbar” (Allah is great).

Not on this blog will you see that blasphemy!  Hagia Sophia's history is extraordinary. It was the largest church in Christendom for more than 1000 years. It's just my opinion, but I believe the scripture verse, “Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand) Matthew 24:15, may refer to the Hagia Sophia. It may refer to the time of Antiochus, but may also refer to a time in the very near future; the beginning of the Great Tribulation.

Islam - Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow > Surprising Origins of Turks and Other Disturbing Questions

At Grand Mosque in Mecca, Muslim cleric prays, ‘Oh Allah,

bring annihilation upon the plundering and occupying Jews’

AUG 6, 2022 3:00 PM 

BY ROBERT SPENCER

Jihad Watch

The Jews in the Qur’an are called the strongest of all people in enmity toward the Muslims (5:82); they fabricate things and falsely ascribe them to Allah (2:79; 3:75, 3:181); they claim that Allah’s power is limited (5:64); they love to listen to lies (5:41); they disobey Allah and never observe his commands (5:13). They are disputing and quarreling (2:247); hiding the truth and misleading people (3:78); staging rebellion against the prophets and rejecting their guidance (2:55); being hypocritical (2:14, 2:44); giving preference to their own interests over the teachings of Muhammad (2:87); wishing evil for people and trying to mislead them (2:109); feeling pain when others are happy or fortunate (3:120); being arrogant about their being Allah’s beloved people (5:18); devouring people’s wealth by subterfuge (4:161); slandering the true religion and being cursed by Allah (4:46); killing the prophets (2:61); being merciless and heartless (2:74); never keeping their promises or fulfilling their words (2:100); being unrestrained in committing sins (5:79); being cowardly (59:13-14); being miserly (4:53); being transformed into apes and pigs for breaking the Sabbath (2:63-65; 5:59-60; 7:166); and more. They are under Allah’s curse (9:30), and Muslims should wage war against them and subjugate them under Islamic hegemony (9:29).

Friday Sermon At The Grand Mosque In Mecca

"Oh Allah, Annihilate The Jews; We Take Refuge With Allah Against Their Evil,” 

MEMRI, July 29, 2022:

In a Friday sermon at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Imam Saleh Bin Al-Humayd prayed to Allah to “bring annihilation upon the plundering and occupying Jews” and to protect the Muslims from their evil. The video of the sermon was posted to Al-Kalam Al-Tayyib YouTube channel on July 29, 2022.

Imam Saleh Bin Al-Humayd: “Oh Allah, give us strength to Islam and the Muslims, humiliate polytheism and the polytheists, and turn Your back on the tyrants, the atheists, and all the other enemies of Islam.

“Oh Allah, bring annihilation upon the plundering and occupying Jews, for they are no match for You. Oh Allah, bring down upon them Your punishment, from which criminals cannot escape. Oh Allah, we make You our shield against them, and take refuse with You against their evil.”

If any among you still think Islam is a peaceful religion, be it known that such prayers are repeated in mosques all over the world. Muslims haven't yet figured out that God is not on their side. They will know soon.

Islam in Asia > Pakistanis beat Christians into conversion; Erdogan turns another great church into a mosque in Istanbul; Christians Fleeing Iraq; Shia Iran amputates thief's fingers; Islamic hysteria in India

 

Pakistan: Muslims torture Christians and force them

to recite the Islamic profession of faith

FEB 8, 2024 12:00 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER

The Qur’an says “There is no compulsion in religion” (2:256). However, what constitutes “compulsion” is in the eye of the beholder. The institutionalized subjugation of the dhimma, with its regular humiliation and harassment, from which one can be freed for the simple price of converting to Islam, is not considered compulsion. Remember Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig, the journalists who were kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam — even though their conversions were obviously coerced, their captors made them say that they were converting freely, and the captors probably believed that themselves. After all, the journos could have chosen to be killed instead.

Christians Tortured, Forced to Recite Islamic Creed in Pakistan

Morning Star News, February 1, 2024:

LAHORE, Pakistan (Christian Daily International–Morning Star News) – An Islamist cleric presided over the forced conversion of two Christians in Sialkot District, Pakistan after they were tortured into reciting the Islamic conversion creed, sources said.

Azam Masih, 28, and his brother, Nadeem Masih, were abducted, beaten with iron rods and pressured to convert to Islam on Jan. 22 in the Kotli Loharan area, said Adil Ghauri, chairman of the Masihi Baidari Tehreek or Movement for Christian Awakening.

Azam Masih was working at his tailoring shop in the Kharota Syedan market when Naseem Shah and accomplices held him at gunpoint and forcibly took him to the house of another suspect, Sunny Shah, Ghauri said.

“The assailants accused Azam of patronizing ‘wrongdoings’ in the area and started beating him with iron rods,” Ghauri told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News, adding that the suspects later abducted his younger brother, brought him to the house and subjected him to the same torture. “The accused then forced the two Christians to recite the Kalima [proclamation of Islamic conversion] if they wanted to save their lives, threatening to kill them if they refused. The tortured brothers had no choice but to surrender to this demand.”

The suspects also recorded a video statement of the two brothers in which they were forced to say that they were converting to Islam of their own free will, Ghauri said. He added that the assailants also snatched mobile phones and other belongings from the two brothers before releasing them.

The rights activist said the brothers and their impoverished Christian family chose to keep silent about the ordeal, as the suspects had warned them against contacting police.

“We came to know about this incident on Jan. 24 and immediately contacted the family,” Ghauri said. “After much persuasion, we were able to convince the family to file a First Information Report [FIR] with the police, as keeping silent would have only encouraged the perpetrators to target more Christians living in the village.”

More than 300 Christian families are settled there, he added.

Kotli Loharan police arrested a Muslim cleric alleged to have conducted the conversion and registered charges against the suspects of kidnapping, punishable by death or life imprisonment; theft with intention to cause injury or death, punishable by up to 10 years in prison; threatening death or grievous injury, punishable by up to seven years in prison; causing injury to extort a confession, punishable by up to 10 years in prison; and acts committed by several persons in furtherance of common intention.

The suspects, Naseem Shah and Sunny Shah, have criminal backgrounds and have been involved in inciting hatred against Christians, Ghauri said.

“This is not the first time Christians have been targeted in that area,” Ghauri said. “In fact, after the Aug. 16, 2023 attacks in Jaranwala, at least two-three attempts were made to stir religious tension by throwing torn pages of the Quran near Christian homes. Had the police and district administration taken timely action against the perpetrators of those incidents, this incident could have been prevented.”…

Photo By Shahzad Ali, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57538225

The recent conversion of the greatest church in Christian history, The Hagia Sophia, to a mosque, and the preaching of Tayyip Erdogan in that mosque strikes me as the manifestation of the prophecy, "When you see the Abomination of Desolation standing in the Holy Place..." Daniel 12:11,12.

While credit for this is usually given to Greek King Antiochus IV Epiphanes in the 2nd Century BC, I suspect there was another fulfillment of this prophecy last year.

Turkey Revives Plan to Convert Another

Historic Church Into a Triumphal Mosque

FEB 8, 2024 7:00 AM BY ROBERT SPENCER

New in PJ Media:

“If you look at history books, you will see that Turk equals Muslim,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday. He added that “a definition of Turkishness without the inclusion of Islam’s holy war spirit is merely an attempt to turn the Turkish nation into a folklore tale.” On Feb. 23, Turkey plans to reinforce its Islamic identity and “holy war spirit” by converting one of the most celebrated and important Byzantine churches in the world, the Chora Church in Istanbul, into a triumphal mosque.

Plans to transform Chora Church, or Church of the Holy Savior, which contains some of the most exquisite surviving examples of Medieval Byzantine iconography, have been in the works for four years. Ekathimerini reported Tuesday that “the plan to convert the church, which had been operating as a museum for nearly 80 years, dates from 2020,” when Erdogan included it in his much-criticized decree to turn the most important Byzantine church in the world, Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia, into a mosque.

Yet while Hagia Sophia was duly made into a mosque in July 2020, “the Chora Church scheme was put on hold so that restoration work could be carried out.” A church was first built on the site of the present Chora Church early in the fourth century. “The present structure dates mostly from the 14th century,” according to UNESCO, and “its mosaics and frescoes, commissioned by the Byzantine humanist and poet Theodore Metochites (14th century) form one of the most complete ensembles of late Byzantine art to survive in Istanbul.”

Like Hagia Sophia, Chora Church first became a mosque after the Ottoman conquest and looting of Constantinople in 1453, although Hagia Sophia was converted immediately, and Chora Church remained a church until early in the sixteenth century. In 1945, Chora Church became a museum, but Erdogan is at war with Turkish secularism, and so it could not remain a museum any more than Hagia Sophia could.

In order to understand this, one must understand the idea of triumphal mosques in Islam. All over the world, there are mosques that have been built on the holy sites of conquered peoples, and sacred structures of non-Muslims that have been converted into mosques. This is done on purpose, so as to declare the victory of Islam over the other religion that once had a holy place on that spot and the superiority of Islam over that religion. That’s why there is a mosque — in fact, two mosques — on the site of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, and why Hagia Sophia, which was for nearly a millennium the grandest and most important cathedral in the Christian world, had to become a mosque. There are also thousands of mosques in India that are built over Hindu temples that jihadis destroyed.

When will this movement begin in Europe? For it surely will.

There is more. Read the rest here.

Christian exodus from Iraq ‘alarming

by Susan Korah, Catholic Register, February 1, 2024:

A multitude of problems — corruption, discrimination and unemployment at home, exacerbated by the fallout from the Gaza war — are driving an alarming number of Iraqi Christians from their homeland, seeking emigration as a last resort, say Church leaders and advocacy organizations.

At least two prominent Church leaders have raised red flags, appealing to the international community to help their people.

“People in Iraq are really afraid that the violence will spread beyond Gaza,” said Archbishop Bashar Warda, Chaldean Archbishop of Erbil, in a recent interview with Aid to the Church in Need, the pontifical charity that helps persecuted Christians around the world.

“Speaking on behalf of all the people — especially the minorities, who tend to suffer more than others, especially in conflict situations — please God, no more war,” he pleaded.

Sorry, Bishop, we are on the verge of the Great Tribulation. Things will get much worse before they get better. Christians abandoning Iraq and other Muslim countries may well be a good thing.

Describing this renewed impetus towards emigration as “alarming,” Warda told The Catholic Register the threat of the Christian community’s disappearance from its ancient homeland is looming larger than ever.

“We do not want to disappear, but we will, without a strong, determined and ceaseless voice from the international community,” he said.

Fewer than 150,000 Christians remain in Iraq, down from the 1.5 million prior to 2003. Approximately 67 per cent are Chaldean Catholics (an eastern rite of the Roman Catholic Church), and nearly 20 per cent are members of the Assyrian Church of the East. The remainder are Syriac Orthodox, Syriac Catholic, Armenian Catholic, Armenian Apostolic, Anglican and other Protestants and evangelicals.

Unemployment is a major factor in the desire to emigrate, with people still struggling to make ends meet after the destruction of livelihoods by ISIS, Warda explained. Seven years after the military defeat of ISIS, the struggle to make a living goes on.

“Since the right to return was granted in 2017, there have been no livelihood programs for minorities in their own country,” he said. “How can one have dignity without work?”…

The archbishop’s concerns were echoed in a recent statement by Cardinal Louis Sako, whose official position as the patriarch of the Chaldean Church in Iraq was revoked by the Iraqi government in July 2023. Since then, he has left Baghdad, the capital city, and lives in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in the north of the country.

“More than a million Christians have emigrated. Most of them were with qualified scientific, economic and skilled backgrounds, but who cares?” he asked in the statement dated Jan. 10….

“Attacks on Christians are still continuing — on their skills, their jobs, the seizure of their properties, we have documented examples,” he wrote. “Cases of forced conversion by ISIS or others, the Islamization of minors, failure to preserve their rights, an attempt to deliberately erase their heritage, history, religious legacy, expressions of hatred in some religious discourses as well as in education books.”

A recent tragedy, a fire that broke out last September during a Christian wedding reception, killing more than 100 in the northern town of Qaraqosh, was another major setback for the community.

A Human Rights Watch researcher reported that government investigations found local authorities were negligent in their failure to enforce safety regulations. Contractors had used cheap, highly flammable construction materials. The report further noted that corruption allowed violators of building codes to act with impunity, reinforcing the Christian community’s suspicions….

Warda said the disappearance of the Christian presence in Iraq would be an irreparable loss to the country.

“Of course, we don’t want our people to leave, and they don’t want to leave either, but feel they must, out of necessity,” he said. “We carry the name of Christ and His light in this country. It is our duty to uphold the flame of faith and bestow blessings through our presence. If we were to migrate entirely who would proclaim His name to the people?”

He will Himself, just before His Judgement comes down.

 

Iran: Man’s fingers amputated for stealing sheep

from Islamic Republican Guards Corps member

FEB 9, 2024 12:30 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER

“As for the thief, both male and female, cut off their hands. It is the reward of their own deeds, an exemplary punishment from Allah. Allah is mighty, wise.” (Qur’an 5:38)

Yet Shi’a Iran only amputates the fingers. See, they’re moderates.

Iranian Finger Amputations Continue Against International Law

Iran International, February 8, 2024 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

Iran’s judiciary has amputated the fingers of a 35-year-old man for allegedly stealing five sheep from a farm belonging to an IRGC member as the medieval practice gains pace.

According to the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights Organization (IHRNGO), the amputation was carried out last July in the central prison of Iran’s religious city of Qom, the revelation showing a parallel rise in both executions and amputations over the last year.

“The amputation of a man’s fingers for stealing a few sheep by a corrupt system whose officials compete with each other in stealing and embezzling billions of dollars shows the extent of the Islamic Republic’s cruelty and immorality,” said IHRNGO Director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.

According to the Abdorrahman Boroumand Centre, since January 2000, the Iranian authorities have amputated the fingers of at least 131 men, Amnesty International reported in 2022….

 

India: Muslims throw Molotov cocktails at cops guarding

demolition of illegal mosque, four dead, 250 wounded

FEB 9, 2024 11:30 AM BY ROBERT SPENCER

“Make ready for them all that you can of force and of warhorses, so that by them you may strike terror in the enemy of Allah and your enemy…” (Qur’an 8:60)